With the miniaturization of a semiconductor integrated circuit, an integration degree of a field effect transistor (MOSFET: Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) increases at a pace of four times in three years. In such situation, an opportunity in which a designer uses a programmable semiconductor device such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or the like that can be electrically programmed by the designer to realize a desired circuit in a manufactured semiconductor chip increases.
However, it is known that when the same function is realized by using the FPGA or a custom-designed semiconductor device, the FPGA requires a lot of transistors whose number is greater than the number of transistors used in the custom-designed semiconductor device by one or more orders of magnitude. Therefore, a currently available FPGA has a problem in which an area efficiency is low and a power consumption becomes large. In recent years, a study in which an overhead of the FPGA is reduced by realizing a programmable wiring by mounting a variable resistance element in a multi-layered wiring layer and whereby electric power is saved and the power consumption is reduced is being performed.
As the variable resistance element, an ReRAM (Resistance Random Access Memory) using a transition metal oxide, Nano Bridge (registered trademark of NEC) using an ion conductor, or the like is used. In patent literature 1 and non-patent literature 1, a variable resistance element which uses the movement of a metal ion in a solid (ion conductor) in which an ion can freely move when an electric field or the like is applied and the electrochemical reaction is disclosed. The variable resistance element disclosed in patent literature 1 and non-patent literature 1 is composed of an ion conduction layer, and a first electrode and a second electrode which contact with the ion conduction layer and are provided on a facing surface. In the variable resistance element disclosed in patent literature 1 and non-patent literature 1, the metal ion is supplied from the first electrode to the ion conduction layer and the metal ion is not supplied from the second electrode to the ion conduction layer. In the variable resistance element disclosed in patent literature 1 and non-patent literature 1, a resistance value of the ion conductor is changed by changing a polarity of the applied voltage and whereby, a state of conduction between two electrodes is controlled. In patent literature 1 and non-patent literature 1, a crossbar switch in which the variable resistance element is used in an ULSI (Ultra-Large Scale Integration) is disclosed.